Sexual Morality with the Money
Ellen Goodman hits the nail squarely and eloquently on the head today in her editorial in the Boston Globe today. As we’ve been discussing, Randall Tobias’ recent resignation in the wake of the discovery that he was a regular client of the now infamous “D.C. Madam” is only the latest blow to the Bush administration’s failed abstinence-only policies. Goodman connects the issues beautifully –
“Well, Tobias was not just your everyday CEO-turned bureaucrat. This is one time that “private life” and “public record” are as tightly wedded as a pizza and its toppings. As the first global AIDS czar, Tobias oversaw American public policy for foreign private lives. He was in charge of doling out sexual morality with the money.”
Why the pizza reference? Tobias has publicly likened calling the escort company to “calling out for pizza.” So now the man who has personally been responsible for exporting not only the failed abstinence-only, anti-condom rules with American funds for countries struggling to contain exploding HIV crises but also the anti-prostitution and trafficking rulings tied to the funds (for a good summary, see OSI’s report) is a self-described consumer of those services? The very services he has condemned and forced developing, impoverished countries with sky-high HIV epidemics partly driven through sex work to renounce in order to receive US funds? Like ordering PIZZA?
Bravo, Ellen Goodman!
